Earth-sheltered Greenhouse

Here are plans to make an Earth-sheltered Greenhouse from a man in Idaho. He actually built it into the side of a hill to help moderate the temperatures inside. It looks like he dug it all out by hand. (Click on slide show for close-ups.) He must have wanted vegetables badly! I’m pretty sure if we tried something like that on our land, the greenhouse would fill up with water. We have a pretty high water table when there isn’t a drought. If this doesn’t seem like it would work for your situation, check out some of the other season-extending books in my Amazon Store.

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About the Author

Kathy Purdy is a colchicum evangelist, converting unsuspecting gardeners into colchicophiles. She would be delighted to speak to your group about colchicums or other gardening topics. Kathy’s been writing since 4th grade, gardening since high school, and blogging since 2002.

What differentiates a bulb from a perennial plant is that the nourishment for the flower is stored within the bulb itself.…There is something miraculous about the way that a little grenade of dried up tissue can explode into a complete flower.

One way to combat a high water table is to bring in soil and build the whole thing above your current ground level. You would have to build a pretty big mound, but at least you could build the thing and get the benefit of the earth sheltering. Most of the additional “dirt” could be pit-run gravel which is usually pretty reasonably priced. The only topsoil needed would be that in the actual growing beds. That could come from your lot before you place the first gravel, so you could save that much.

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